I just returned after three weeks
in the Karatu District organizing the construction of the new High School
project at Gongali and visiting the new Qameyu Village site for the first time.
But first an update on the Gongali School Electrical supply project. The
electrician, Sebastian Hilonga, completed the wiring of the classrooms and
teacher residences, and I just received shockinglygood news from Project
Manager Mathew Sulle that Tanesco, the power company, has finally started their
work to install the transformer and power poles. So excitement is building
among the teacher families living there…

our Gongali Primary School transformer

playtime…

…speaking of which, I decided that
a Sunday picnic for the teacher families would be a timely event at Gongali
Primary. For one thing, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the arrival of a 4th
teacher family to the little community. Emmanuel Pariso, his wife Sophia and
baby Gloria are delighted with their new home and friends.

Also, teacher
Boniface is now married and has just returned from a honeymoon. A small man
with a huge grin, he proudly introduced his tall shy bride Irene. Headmaster
Mark Mollel and wife Sarah attended the wedding in Arusha, a well–deserved
holiday for them.

picnic day at Gongali

Mathew and I and his two visiting daughters, Lissa and
Maureen, showed up with food, drink and volleyballs and we spent the hot sunny
afternoon munching on pizza and chasing errant volleyballs to the delight of
parents and children alike.

a gift for PSFA
from the community

This Gongali School community is
growing. With the advent of Director Mark Burrowes electricity project, Mayor
Peter Hayshi is planning the relocation of his office here. On one of my visits
with him, we walked the site and he pointed out the location of a new church to
be built there soon. And to my surprise, he proclaimed a 2-acre plot next to it
as a gift to PSFA to build an office/accommodation building. Hey, we’ll seriously consider it; a great opportunity for drop in visitors to support our
cause as well as saving on accommodation expenses during our work here.

Edith Gvora
High School

We are so fortunate to have solved
the biggest problem of any project – the selection of a good builder. Restus
(Rusti) Ernest is a former teacher but his passion was building. His resume is
a great benefitto our work. His English is great, he’s computer savvy, and
to top it off, he’s smart and excellent with construction.

The project is fast-tracked for
completion before Christmas this year. Construction didn’t start until I arrived,
as I needed to assure the proper siting of the buildings. I came with freshly
drawn plans for the minimum four buildings required for registration of the
school name. As usual the costing came in high, but through discussions with
Restus, some redesigning (with hand drawing, as I didn’t dare bring a computer
this time around as mine was stolen from my room during my last visit in
April/May) and some additional generosity from our donor Tony Gvora, we finally
arrived at a construction cost.

they mix the concrete on the ground

digging trenches for the footings

teacher residences at the high school site

the erosion gully

foundation wall trenches

concrete brick foundation walls

surveying the classroom buildings

I also sent a design package to the top gun
in the region, Mr Moses Mabula, the District Executive Officer, who on a
previous occasion requested monthly progress reports of our work. And
fortunately, his staff accepted my suggested changes to the government plans
that we were given to follow. For example, I improved the Administration
building layout by having indoor rather than exterior access to washrooms. (I
couldn’t imagine staff running to outside doors in the middle of their heavy
rainy season.)

To date, Restus has built the
floor slabs of the two two-classroom buildings and is doing the foundations for
the Administration and Toilet buildings. The walls weren’t up yet, but I did my
usual carpentry part of roof framing. How, you ask?? Well, I decided that the
trusses should be built with a little better engineering than ones on previous
projects. So I asked the B&B hotel if I could build on a nice level grass
area outside my room, and they allowed it.

building roof trusses

my load of truss timber

the finished sample trusses (made with Steve Miller tools)

I built three sample trusses, one
for each building. I enjoyed figuring out a strong design that doubled up on
the bottom chord members to allow alignment in a straight plane; it used more
timber, but will also be more durable.

During my last visit, I drafted
an agreement whereby the construction would be a partnership between Primary
Schools for Africa (PSFA), the Gongali Village Government (GVG) and the
regional government, the Karatu District Council Office (KDCO). PSFA will
design and construct the buildings and GVG and KDCO will be responsible for
site services, ie, electricity, water, sewage, rainwater collection, roads and
paths and landscaping. Two important issues that they needed to address by the
end of this construction phase were the provision of water and septic systems
and filling a large erosion gully running between our new buildings.

A little anxious about their
ability, I met with all parties at the site to ensure they do their part and
fortunately it seems they are very motivated. Mayor Peter Hayshi had some
village funds, so he decided to have the community get into the spirit by
building a teacher residence to start with. Walls are up and roof framing is about
to start. DED Moses Mabula, a tall charismatic politician, as a show of
commitment, strongly directed his accompanying staff to remediate the existing
erosion gully between our buildings. Great! This will get done, but I’m still a
little worried that the water and septic will be delayed as funds are not yet
available.

the Gongali Model Co celebrating
the new high school construction

The good news about water
though, is that the Korean connections of Askwar Hilonga and his Gongali Model
Co. have funded the drilling of a borehole about a kilometer downhill from the
school site. It will take a lot more funds, however, to get the water up to a new
water tank. Our Director Mark Burrowes, a local Victoria mechanical engineer,
has agreed to design the pump system for it.

A worrisome issue arose on my
last day in Karatu. Prime Minister Kikwete and his Ministry of Education has
just decreed that all high schools must build laboratories to increase the
breadth of science learning. For us, it now means we need to have a laboratory
building constructed before we can register the school, which will jeopardize
the donors naming of the school. The village or ourselves do not have the
additional $50,000 – $100,000 CDN extra that it would cost. We will see how
this develops over the next few months. Mayor Peter Hayshi was understandably
angry and so was I, to now have the rules change at this late stage, but he
assures me that he will resolve it somehow.

Patricia
Elizabeth Primary School

Mathew and I went on safari, not
to see animals, but to scope out the new primary school to be built that is
funded by donor Ted Woodcock to memorialize his late wife Patricia Elizabeth.
Our destination was the tiny village of Qameyu located west of Babati Town, a 3
hour drive from Karatu to Babati and then a bone-rattling 2 hour drive from
Babati to the village on extremely rough and dusty roads.

Qameyu kids

We were greeted at the village
office by the senior VIP and Project Manager, Ward Councillor Paulo Margwe, the District Education
Co-ordinator Mary Modaha and several other local political staff, who then led
us to the site which to my delight, was large and FLAT, (a plus for building).
I was surprised because it seemed to be the only level site in this hilly
community. Unlike most village schools, there is lots of room for a good sports field for soccer. We walked around the perimeter of this wonderful nine acre property,
with me sketching and pacing the distances, to eventually agree on the location
of the buildings. We’ll do the seven classrooms, they’ll do the outhouse-style
toilets. If future funds allow, they would like a kitchen/dining hall and
teacher residences.

fog screen at Qameyu site (captures early morning dew water
- 10 litres per day) - an NGO projec

gift of 200 lbs of potatoes
(I gave my share to a local family in Karatu)

official welcome by local kids
who will be the first ones for the school

the sign makes it official - there will be a new school here

the school site - nice and flat

mapping out the building locations

After passionate speeches (Mathew
translating the Swahili ones) in front of a crowd of some smiling and some bewildered village elders, parents and children, we were presented with
a gift of two hundred pounds of potatoes and our vehicle “walked” off the site
surrounded by a group of colourfully dressed women chanting and adorning the
car with plants and flowers. It was an amazing experience – a first actually.

chanting women "walking"
our vehicle from the site

And now, back to the hotel where...

...we ate Carlos for dinner

The stay at the hotel this time was more enjoyable than previous ones. Security had been tightened up since my room was broken into last trip. But it was high season with a lot more tourists staying here, as well as new NGO's with their various projects projects. The highlight was meeting a lively group of young Germans who had been on a whirlwind tour of Lutheran church facilities. It was the birthday of their director Wolfgang and to acknowledge his work in Tanzania, the local church gave him a goat which the group named Carlos. Carlos was a bit of a problem for sensitive Wolfgang; he was not comfortable with Carlos' supposed demise of being served of dinner. To add to that, Kerrie Robertson, a long term hotel guest working here with an NGO developing programs for HIV infected village women, took a liking to Carlos. And she would have daily visits to ease his loneliness while tied up at a tree near her room. So Carlos was spared…at least while the Germans were there. But on the day after they left, the staff inherited the gift and with the least bit of hesitation, decided to treat the remaining guests with the popular Tanzanian delicacy of roast goat. After a few mouthfuls during that evening meal I gagged when someone whispered…"That was Carlos". It was strange and somewhat sad to have eaten something with a name, but more so for Kerrie to have lost a friend as quickly as she had found one.

So now its back to Canada to
continue with fundraising to help with the Gongali laboratory building as well
as our other school projects that need us to continue with their building
program. We are getting busy, but I’m lovin’ it!